Editing and first round of proofreading are complete. The final draft is in my formatter’s inbox. I’ll probably see first drafts from him in about a week, along with the artwork for the back cover and spine.

And here’s something awesome yet terrifying: I wrote the first two paragraphs of book 4.

Editing is complete. The first proofread begins on August 31. Check out this final edited hardcopy sitting on my desk. Hard to believe.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: Complete
Proofreading: Begins August 31
Formatting: Not started
Final proofread: Not started
Cover art: 50% complete

First round of edits are back from my editor. I just got through three chapters in about an hour. I’d say it’s going pretty quick. Three chapters in one hour, 55 chapters total…somebody do the math for me, my brain’s had it for today.

The back cover blurb is just about finalized, which means in a couple days I can get everything submitted to my cover artist for him to get started. Yep, we’re getting that close. :)

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete (161,377 words)
Professional editing: In progress
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started

So, there’s this thing called strep throat. If you haven’t had it, you’ve probably heard from people who had it as a child, and they’ve told you it was horrible. You can sympathize, but just partially, because everything in childhood occurs from a different perspective. The basement of your childhood home? HUGE. (But have you seen it lately? It’s not.) Dairy Queen dip cones were SO GOOD. (Try one as an adult. Meh.) And riding your bike to the end of the street? It was a country away. You’d need to pack a lunch.

Let me tell you this. There is nothing different about the perspective when it comes to strep throat. It’s horrible. It’s a 104.8 temperature while dosed up with ibuprofen horrible. It’s forgetting to water your flowers for 3 days so they almost die in July heat horrible. It’s sleeping all day, and all night, and still being corpse-tired. It’s forcing yourself to drink water because you know you have to but your stomach is coming up your throat.

And it’s not so much about the throat. Maybe a little at first. But then the rest of it kicks in–I don’t even know what to call “it”–and you’ll be sweating and shivering and forget your name for three days until you somehow make it to a person who can hand you some amoxicillin.

I guess that’s the tl;dr way of admitting I haven’t touched TOATM for a good week.

My hardcopy has been sitting like this:

My laptop has been sitting like this:

And I’ve been in a strange land far away, safe from harassment by fictional characters.

I have less than two weeks before this draft is due to my editor. And to be honest, the last time I sat down to work, I had this feeling: I’m not sure if there’s anything else I can do with this.

So in honor of my fever/amoxicillin delirium, I call this draft finished.

Progress of THE OAK AND THE MOON
First Draft: Complete (160,627 words)
My revisions: First round complete, final round complete! (161,377 words)
Professional editing: Starts mid-July
Final Draft: Not started
Formatting: Not started
Proofreading: Not started
Cover art: Not started